Monday, January 18, 2010

Good News!

I bring you good news on this MLK day 2010! MLK 2006 was the night that Matt proposed. MLK 2007 we were about to buy this house. MLK 2008 was Jack's ::cough:: Due ::cough:: date. I have no idea what MLK 2009 was, but this year I have some very exciting news:

Jack is officially sleeping better!!!!

We tried everything. We tried sitting/standing in his room till he fell asleep (which mean nap/bedtime was a 45 minute ritual), we tried bribery with treats, we tried time-outs, we tried yelling at him and there may have been a butt-swat thrown in once. All to no avail. Finally for nap on Wednesday I decided rationally explaining to him what was happening.

"Jack, it's time for nap. Mommy is going to be downstairs. You're going to be OK. It's time to lay down and go night-night."

As I'm explaining 'the plan' to him I'm thinking to myself "This is NEVER going to work." As soon as I was done explaining to him I shut the door. Silence. I went down stairs waiting for him to change his mind and start screaming... silence. I couldn't believe it.

In all our attempts to get him to go to sleep, treating him like an adult and just explaining to him what 'the plan' was never occurred to either of us. We did it for bedtime, and for the midnight wake-ups. And each night was more and more drama-free. He's still waking up maybe once or twice a night but Matt just goes in and says "It's time for night-night. Mommy and Daddy are right here, we're going night-night in our bed, you're going to lay down and go night-night in your bed." To which Jack replies "Okay." And he lays down and Matt leaves and comes back to bed- 3 minutes or less. Every nap and night time since Wednesday has been the same (or maybe even a little better). We really can't believe it.

I haven't written anything about it for fear that I might jinx myself. And even still I'm wondering if nap and bedtime today will be as great as it has been... but I think it's commonly accepted that kids need 3 days to change a habit (where adults need 21) so since we're on day 5 I'm feeling 90% hopeful that we can expect continued success.

5 comments:

emk said...

HOORAY!!!!

melaniet42 said...

AWE.SOME.

Lindsey said...

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!

Brenna said...

I love the way you can reason with a toddler. When they're hysterical not so much, but when it does work, it's great! Yay!

Kate said...

Yay for sleep!